Dear Sheree:

Hi how are you? You are the prettiest girl in class. Everyone thinks so and the boys look it, you can tell. My name is Maude Brown. I know you know my name but we haven't talked at all, yet. When I have a birthday party I would invite you though. Anyway I want to know if you will be my partner for the nature project? This is secret, but there is a forest in the middle of Elburg and that forest is the best place for finding nature, and also I have a ton of jars we could use. Please tell me yes or no by tomorrow. Thank you.
Sincerely Maude

I wrinkle up the letter but I don't throw it out, I just think about if it's good enough to write over, maybe in purple, and stick into her shoulderbag when she's off sharpening her pencil. It's not too bad. I put in a compliment to make it nicer, and I wrote please and thank you. I put in a lie too though: there's no party to invite Sheree to, because Gramma says I'm too old for birthday parties. I know that's not the real reason though. There are TV shows about sweet sixteen and Mexican queensenyera and that's light years older than me. Gramma just doesn't want to have people over, ever. That's why I found the secret forest. That's why it showed itself to me.